Paul and Lucy Spadoni periodically live in Tuscany to explore Paul’s Italian roots, practice their Italian and enjoy “la dolce vita.”
All work is copyrighted and may not be reprinted without written permission from the author, who can be contacted at www.paulspadoni.com

Thursday, May 5, 2016

What started as Seghieri Day extends into a week of family activities

Seghieri
Day soon extended into Seghieri Week as the festas continued. I met
with Jean-Paul and Marcel on Monday to share some genealogy
information, and on Tuesday we enjoyed a scrumptious feast at the
Poggio restaurant with Seghieri families from Italy and France, and,
of course, we two Americans.

Elena offers a brindisi to the Seghieri families of the world while we dine at the Poggio.

Marcel
offered a brindisi
(toast) to me Tuesday evening, noting that my research had brought
together Seghieri families from three countries, showing everyone how
they were connected. It was only then that I fully realized how well
my humble six-year-old dream to reconnect with my grandmother’s
Seghieri roots had come to such grand results. I had truly found a
group of relatives that shared my feelings about the importance of
family history, connections and pride.

Marcel, Jean-Paul, Sergio, Elena at the state archives.

Then
on Wednesday, Jean-Paul, Marcel, Hervé and I
met with Montecarlo historian Sergio Nelli at his work in the
Archivio di Stato di Lucca. He gave us a thorough tour of the
facilities, and we looked at room after room of weathered books and
parchments. The documents are divided into sections: diplomatic,
concerning the Republic of Lucca, Napoleonic and notarial. The
archives are the results of a 1804 decree that all of the papers from
the governments of the suppressed Republic of Lucca be brought
together at a single institution.

It was awesome to see so many old books and scrolls in one
place, and to be able to open them and look inside.

The
documentary material in the diplomatic section includes 19,855
parchments ranging from the 8th to the 19th centuries. They are
arranged in chronological order and by provenance: from monasteries,
from families of the nobility and from the secret archives of the
city-state. The documentary material on the Republic of Lucca,
conserved organically from the beginning of the 14th century,
includes statutes, the proceedings of the elders before the
liberation, the proceedings of the elders after the liberation,
public amendments of the papers of the general curia and the papers
of the Guinigi government.

We must have looked inside at least a dozen rooms like this, filled from floor to ceiling with old documents.

From
the archives of the Napoleonic government of Elisa Baciocchi
Bonaparte and of the Bourbonic duchy come the civil list and property
list of the princes, the senate, the council of state and council of
ministers; ministries; secretaries of the governments; prefecture of
Lucca; registry office; public health and hygiene; education, arts,
industry, commerce and food office; water, roads and buildings;
militia; police; the mint and public treasury; state property;
register, mortgages and public debt; tax collectors. The notarial
archives include the records of the nobility and private individuals,
as well as special collections including documentation on
congregations in the city and the territory, brotherhoods and
hospitals.

The
archive is impressive in its volume and depth, which speaks to the
respect that Italians have for their history. However, it is also a
bit overwhelming, because the texts are in Latin or old Italian
script, both of which the average person can’t read. It’s great
that all these documents are being preserved, but it would take a
lifetime just to read through the books contained in a single room.
And given that most of the documents are technical accounts of legal
and political acts, one might die an early death from boredom.
However, I’m thankful that there are people like Doctor Nelli, who
have a passion for reading and noting the details of our shared past.

For
my part, I came with the primary hope of discovering more about the
family tree of the Seghieri family, but most of our time was spent on
the tour. However, Doctor Nelli agreed to drop by the agriturismo
where the French Seghieri families are staying to share more Seghieri
genealogy, and he was true to his word.

Just a few of the fine cheeses we enjoyed.

That
evening was our last in Montecarlo for this season, as we started on
the return to the United States the next morning. But we left in high
spirits, as the French Seghieris treated us and the Italian families
to a dinner featuring champagne, wine, bread, meats, gelato, biscotti
and a large assortment of fine French cheeses from various regions of
the country. As each cheese was served, Jean-Paul explained where it
was from and a little about its production and flavor. We started
with the sweeter cheeses and moved to ones which were strong in both
aroma and flavor.

France
boasts from 350 to 450 distinct types of cheese, grouped into eight
categories. There can be many varieties within each type of cheese,
leading some to claim closer to 1,000 different types of French
cheese. In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle was famously
quoted as saying “Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux
cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?” (“How can you govern a
country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?”)
We didn’t have that many, but definitely enough to appreciate the
variety and quality of the country’s choices.

A toast to Dr. Sergio Nelli, who was indispensable in bringing us together.

Doctor Nelli showed up with his Montecarlo genealogy books, and I took photographs of about 20 pages that provided partial or complete Seghieri family trees. This will give me days of work adding these names into the computer database that makes up our already huge family tree. Before I left, I offered a brindisi to Doctor Nelli for all the help he has provided this year and in previous meetings. I ended the toast by explaining that I wanted to find more members of the family, because the more Seghieris I find, the more festas we can have—an explanation that met with widespread expressions of approval.

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First off, before you hassle me about our title, Lucy thought of it. Yes, I know some people may think broad is derogatory, but the etymology is uncertain and she doesn’t find it offensive, and it made me laugh. We have been married since 1974 and are empty-nesters now, which allows me to bring my submerged Italophilia into the open. We first came to live in Italy from February-April in 2011 and have returned during the same months every year. From 2011-2015, we lived in San Salvatore, at the foot of the hilltop city Montecarlo, where my paternal grandparents were born, raised and, in 1908, married. In late 2015, we bought a home in Montecarlo. We come for a variety of purposes: We want to re-establish contact with distant cousins in both Nonno’s and Nonna’s families, we want to learn the language and see what it is like to live as Italians in modern Italy, we like to travel and experience different cultures. Even if we aren’t successful at achieving these purposes, we love Italy and enjoy every moment here, so there is no chance we will be disappointed. I am grateful to God for giving me a wife who is beautiful, clever, adaptable and willing to jump into my dreams wholeheartedly.